Race Roundup

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Some news about race and racism from around the way:

Speaker at Stock Show event apologizes for racist remark

William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year's award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a telegram from the White House." Then he added, "they're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected." Witnesses said they could hear people gasp in the ballroom of the Adams Mark Hotel. "I gasped," said Gov. Bill Ritter, who was sitting at the table with Farr.
Asian stabbed for 'being a terrorist'

WOMAN stabbed an Asian man in an unprovoked attack, telling him "you're all terrorists", a court heard yesterday. Mary McKay, 32, walked up to Tarik Husan and Sarbaz Kamil, in a Glasgow street and knifed Mr Husan repeatedly in the chest and arm. As Mr Husan, who cannot speak English, broke away, bleeding heavily, she told them: "You're all terrorists."
Is Boston a racist city?

The day after last week's New Hampshire primary, Chris Matthews, speaking on MSNBC's Morning Joe, reintroduced the perception that New England and especially Boston have yet to shed their racist pedigree.
For new voters, Democrats find race is not the issue

The front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination realized something in the past week: Talking clumsily about race in America is the quickest way to turn off new voters and silence the buzz generated in the early weeks of the campaign.
O'Ree had vision as NHL pioneer

Willie O'Ree knows it. If eye examinations were required to pass a physical, he would never have been the first black player to appear in a National Hockey League game. As it turned out, breaking the color barrier wasn't nearly as challenging as trying to find the puck on the left wing when he couldn't see a thing out of his right eye.
Pitts: Tiger, Sharpton both wrong on 'lynching' joke

Woods has called the incident a ''nonissue.'' The Rev. Al Sharpton issued a statement calling for Tilghman to be fired. From where I sit, they're both wrong. Woods, for one, has long struck me as distressingly obtuse on issues of race in particular and human rights in general.